Admin command

The ADMIN command claims an unowned planet or opens the administration menu for a planet already under the player's command. It operates on the planet currently being orbited; it does not accept a planet number or name.

Syntax

ADMIN

The ship must first enter orbit with the Orbit command. Issuing ADMIN while not in orbit produces an error. Wormholes are not planets and cannot be claimed or administered through normal play.

Claiming a planet

If the planet has no owner, ADMIN asks whether the player wishes to claim it. Confirming the claim:

records the player as the planet's commander;
increases the number of planets owned by that player;
asks for a planet name; and
enters the administration menu.

The claim is refused if the planet is owned by someone else or the player already owns the configured maximum number of planets.

Classic GE resets every production assignment when any unowned planet is claimed, including a planet that was previously owned and then abandoned. It sets men and food production to 50% each and every other production rate to zero.

ge-next distinguishes a newly discovered planet from a previously named and abandoned one. A first claim receives the initial men/food assignments and base sale prices. Reclaiming an abandoned planet preserves its existing production and trade settings. This behavior was established in ge-next 0.1.

Administering an owned planet

If the orbiting player owns the planet, ADMIN enters an interactive menu. While this menu is active, subsequent input is interpreted as a menu selection rather than as a normal flight command. X returns to command mode.

The menu provides an accounting report, tax collection, production and trade settings, planet renaming, tax-rate control, trade-password control, and a beacon message. The economic effects are detailed in Planet administration, Planetary production, Buy command, and related colonization articles.

Both classic GE and ge-next provide seven numbered choices. Classic's displayed menu nevertheless ends with “Please select (1-6),” even though option 7, the beacon message, is implemented and works. ge-next inherited the incorrect prompt through version 0.3.2 and changed it to “Please select (1-7)” in version 0.3.3.

During testing for ge-next 0.2.5, an override was added allowing anyone permitted to use the SYS command to administer any owned planet, subject to the configured SYS access policy.

Menu handling differences

The overall menu and its intended functions are substantially the same in classic GE and ge-next, with a few improvements. ge-next assigns base prices when a planet is first claimed, preserves the settings from a previously abandoned planet, allows Enter to retain the current value while editing an item's settings, and protects large planetary cash, tax, quantity, and sales totals from the classic signed-display and cash overflow problems.

ge-arena

ge-arena does not use persistent colonies or the planetary administration menu. During a match, ADMIN is a rename-only command for the unowned planet currently being orbited. It cannot rename an owned planet, including the Galactic Command planets in the neutral sector. It neither claims the planet nor changes production, taxes, trade, or ownership.

Syntax

Claiming a planet

Administering an owned planet

Menu handling differences

ge-arena

See also